The biggest plus to Vic’s victory is that his trade value increases for when the Phillies feel they need to part with an outfielder in the off-season or during the 2010 season. According to FanGraphs, Victorino has been worth $47.5 million since 2006 and has been paid $1.2 million. He’s going to get a hefty payraise in the off-season unless he completely falls off a cliff the rest of the season so the All-Star nod, believe it or not, goes a long way towards helping the Phillies maximize his value in a transaction.

In other news, Todd Zolecki tweets that the Phillies and Pedro Martinez are close to coming to terms on a contract. The article he links to is now dead, which makes me doubt the veracity of the report (it is from the D.R. after all). However, let’s pretend that it’s a done deal and make some assumptions.

Without having much information at our disposal, I think we can safely assume that the deal is financially reasonable. The Phillies were quite famously cash-strapped after signing Chan Ho Park in the off-season, when most of us were hollering for the Phillies to get Joe Beimel or Will Ohman. And secondly, the Phillies simply don’t sign bad contracts willy-nilly, Adam Eaton aside.

The Martinez signing wouldn’t exclude a trade for another starting pitcher, but it would make freeing up salary a higher priority. As a result, finding a trade everyone likes between two or more teams is going to be a chore for GM Ruben Amaro.

If the deal is final, what should we expect from Pedro? A mid-80’s fastball with a change-up and a slurve. Expect him to get hit around more often than not. His 5.61 ERA in 109 innings last year matched up with his 5.18 FIP. Hitters made contact at a whopping 67.5% rate despite swinging only 44% of the time, the lowest at any point in his career since the data became available (2002).

Despite his success in six innings in the World Baseball Classic, Martinez is very pedestrian and shouldn’t provide much of an upgrade to the back of the Phillies’ starting rotation. Considering the lack of depth and the organization’s reluctance to throw more young guys into the Majors, being nothing more than a #5 in performance could be just fine.

At Baseball Daily Digest, I campaign for Red Bull, a product which Jimmy Rollins recently endorsed, to be added to the banned substances list.

Right on Red Bull’s very own website, they clear up any doubt that their product is a performance-enhancing substance. Click on benefits and you’ll see, “Improves performance”, “increases concentration & reaction speed”, “increases endurance”, and “stimulates metabolism.” Even more, it says, “It has been specially developed for times of increased mental and physical exertion. In addition, Red Bull vitalizes the body and mind.”